Cliffs Synfuel Corp. v. Babbitt

*1119MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

STEWART, District Judge.

The issue before this court is whether the decision of the Interior Department’s Interior Board of Land Appeals, (“IBLA”), captioned United States v. Cliffs Synfuel Corp., IBLA 98-306 (the “IBLA Decision”) is in error. The IBLA Decision is founded upon a prior IBLA decision, U.S. v. John J. Herr, et al., IBLA 92-448, 101 I.D. 113 (1994), (the “Herr decision”). In Herr, the IBLA construed the United States Supreme Court decision in Hickel v. Oil Shale Corporation, 400 U.S. 48, 91 S.Ct. 196, 27 L.Ed.2d 193 (1970), (the “Hickel decision”), to have…